rivaldo2181: no one's arguing that we shouldn't give this nucleus a chance to learn jvg's system. no one's arguing that francis isn't talented. he is talented. and he works hard. but does he have the capacity to lead this team, like he says he can? does he have the basketball IQ to be an effective playmaker? that still remains to be seen. and like it's been mentioned. ALL CAPS = yelling.
I think Steve needs to throw a couple of re-entry passes to Yao, and Yao's production will go up. That's all we have to do. But even if Yao scores more, it wouldn't help Steve's assist, since established post plays don't give you an assist most of time.
I think Steve needs to throw a couple of re-entry passes to Yao, and Yao's production will go up. That's all we have to do. But even if Yao scores more, it wouldn't help Steve's assist, since established post plays don't give you an assist most of time.
One thing not mentioned is that Steve is not a good passer, he is not good at setting up another player, he likes to driible and if he cant attempt his shot then he makes a late bad pass, or one that is so awkward which the shooter receiving the pass has little or no chance of making the shot. This observation is based on what I saw in 82 games last year. These observations should also be considered as reasons why Steve doesnt get a lot of assists,as well as the poor shooting percentage of his team-mates.
Yes Sam Yao Mings game at times towards the latter end of last season went down the tubes! I contend though if it wasnt for Larry Smith and no help from Yaos team-mates, Yao Ming could of still won ROY. In contrast to this when Steve was fighting for his ROY, towards the end of his rookie season, all the players and the coach did everything they could to help Steve pick his stats up.
This is not the whole story. Marbury didn't change his game until his 2nd season with Phoenix. Although, statistically he's been more efficient than Francis his whole career, he could not make his teammates better consistently in NJ (He had one-on-oneidis too). After the Kidd/Marbury trade, it was unanimous what city got the better player (NJ with Kidd). Marbury was angered by the negative comparisons and worked hard in the off-season to improve his total game. That's why his last year was so much better in terms of team play and decision making. You could see it. He just played smarter. Prior to the mid 2001-2002 season Marbury was criticized for the same things that Francis is being criticized today. Except that at least Marbury's statistically was more efficient. But, since I don't like to use stats as the end-all-be-all. They really don't matter since the good things that Marbury did were nullified by his bad decision making. His game has changed for the better. P.S. My views on the last Rocket game isn't related to this post. The way I see it, Francis did well last night. He had only 1 turnover. I want to see more of that! Last night was more a team shooting problem and defense assignment problem. Yao and Francis did well with limited minutes.
To be honest, I don't care what his stats are. His assist per game could be 8 or 9 and I still would doubt his play-making skills. I'm more conserned with his lack of confidence in his teamates. He never passes to Nachbar when he is open; only when he has nothing better to do with the ball does he even consider passing it to him. Plus the effort just isn't there; he would rather score than pass. Steve is my favourite player out there each night, but if he doesn't change, I think he may have to leave the team.
Everyone keeps saying "give him a chance". 4 lottery seasons is a HELL of a lot of chances. He either makes it big this time by improving his ASST/TO ratio and maintaining his scoring...OR, if he can't do both, he needs to reduce scoring and focus on playmaking. If Francis is going to average 6 assists, he sure as hell better average less than 4 TO's a game. IMPROVE THE RATIO. Whocares if he dishes out 12 when throws the ball away 8 times to go along with it? Steve, buddy, pal....Keep getting 6 assists, and keep your turnovers below 3.
Yeah, I was trying to find compromise too... I mean, hell! I'd even take 4.5 assts per game with 1.5 turnovers. I'd take that, as long as Franics got 24ppg. I mean, at least give us something. Francis's numbers are very good...for a shooting guard!
labels labels labels So arbitrary and meaningless, according to JVG: http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/newreply.php?s=&action=newreply&postid=1004134
You were yelling because your comment was all caps. This generally means that you are screaming. Your follow-up was much better. If you use all caps in this forum, you WILL get a response. The BLAH, BLAH, BLAH was just icing on the cake.
Yeah, what he said! For real, give Steve a chance though. Look at Marbury a few years back. He was much worse (as far as arrogance and selfishness goes) than Steve is now, and Steve doesn't get into all th trouble Marbury did. Now everyone is praising Marbury for how much he's changed and he's putting up better numbers than ever. If you trade Steve now, I GUARANTEE it will come back to haunt you once he gains more experience.
sh*t you should see them Fawn over J. Williams in Memphis and WE ALL REMEMBER WTAT A PEICE OF TALENTED CRAP HE WAS WITH THE KINGS [Pre-Hubie] Rocket River "5 on One and Williams for a 3 . . AIR BALL OUT OF BOUNDS" - Kings Announcer
Sorry for not being an internet geek and not knowing that. Trading Francis WOULD be a HUGE mistake. There is no sense in discussing this with you people cause you got it in your minds that Francis can't get it done. Trying to convince you that Francis is top talent and should NOT be traded is harder than J-LO staying with one man. Peace.
